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- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was considered one of the last, if not the last, major star to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. She was known internationally for her beauty, especially for her violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early in her youth and kept the world hooked with ever after.
Taylor was born on February 27, 1932 in London, England. Although she was born an English subject, her parents, Sara Taylor (née Sara Viola Warmbrodt) and Francis Taylor, were Americans, art dealers from St. Louis, Missouri. Her father had moved to London to set up a gallery prior to Elizabeth's birth. Her mother had been an actress on the stage, but gave up that vocation when she married. Elizabeth lived in London until the age of seven, when the family left for the US when the clouds of war began brewing in Europe in 1939. They sailed without her father, who stayed behind to wrap up the loose ends of the art business.
The family relocated to Los Angeles, where Mrs. Taylor's own family had moved. Mr. Taylor followed not long afterward. A family friend noticed the strikingly beautiful little Elizabeth and suggested that she be taken for a screen test. Her test impressed executives at Universal Pictures enough to sign her to a contract. Her first foray onto the screen was in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), released when she was ten. Universal dropped her contract after that one film, but Elizabeth was soon picked up by MGM.
The first production she made with that studio was Lassie Come Home (1943), and on the strength of that one film, MGM signed her for a full year. She had minuscule parts in her next two films, The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) and Jane Eyre (1943) (the former made while she was on loan to 20th Century-Fox). Then came the picture that made Elizabeth a star: MGM's National Velvet (1944). She played Velvet Brown opposite Mickey Rooney. The film was a smash hit, grossing over $4 million. Elizabeth now had a long-term contract with MGM and was its top child star. She made no films in 1945, but returned in 1946 in Courage of Lassie (1946), another success. In 1947, when she was 15, she starred in Life with Father (1947) with such heavyweights as William Powell, Irene Dunne and Zasu Pitts, which was one of the biggest box office hits of the year. She also co-starred in the ensemble film Little Women (1949), which was also a box office huge success.
Throughout the 1950s, Elizabeth appeared in film after film with mostly good results, starting with her role in the George Stevens film A Place in the Sun (1951), co-starring her good friend Montgomery Clift. The following year, she co-starred in Ivanhoe (1952), one of the biggest box office hits of the year. Her busiest year was 1954. She had a supporting role in the box office flop Beau Brummell (1954), but later that year starred in the hits The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) and Elephant Walk (1954). She was 22 now, and even at that young age was considered one of the world's great beauties. In 1955 she appeared in the hit Giant (1956) with James Dean.
Sadly, Dean never saw the release of the film, as he died in a car accident in 1955. The next year saw Elizabeth co-star with Montgomery Clift in Raintree County (1957), an overblown epic made, partially, in Kentucky. Critics called it dry as dust. In addition, Clift was seriously injured during the film, with Taylor helping save his life. Despite the film's shortcomings and off-camera tragedy, Elizabeth was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Southern belle Susanna Drake. However, on Oscar night the honor went to Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve (1957).
In 1958 Elizabeth starred as Maggie Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). The film received rave reviews from the critics and Elizabeth was nominated again for an Academy Award for best actress, but this time she lost to Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! (1958). She was still a hot commodity in the film world, though. In 1959 she appeared in another mega-hit and received yet another Oscar nomination for Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Once again, however, she lost out, this time to Simone Signoret for Room at the Top (1958). Her Oscar drought ended in 1960 when she brought home the coveted statue for her performance in BUtterfield 8 (1960) as Gloria Wandrous, a call girl who is involved with a married man. Some critics blasted the movie but they couldn't ignore her performance. There were no more films for Elizabeth for three years. She left MGM after her contract ran out, but would do projects for the studio later down the road. In 1963 she starred in Cleopatra (1963), which was one of the most expensive productions up to that time--as was her salary, a whopping $1,000,000. The film took years to complete, due in part to a serious illness during which she nearly died.
This was the film where she met her future and fifth husband, Richard Burton (the previous four were Conrad Hilton, Michael Wilding, Mike Todd--who died in a plane crash--and Eddie Fisher). Her next films, The V.I.P.s (1963) and The Sandpiper (1965), were lackluster at best. Elizabeth was to return to fine form, however, with the role of Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Her performance as the loudmouthed, shrewish, unkempt, yet still alluring Martha was easily her finest to date. For this she would win her second Oscar and one that was more than well-deserved. The following year, she and Burton co-starred in The Taming of The Shrew (1967), again giving winning performances. However, her films afterward were box office failures, including Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), The Comedians (1967), Boom! (1968) (again co-starring with Burton), Secret Ceremony (1968), The Only Game in Town (1970), X, Y and Zee (1972), Hammersmith Is Out (1972) (with Burton again), Ash Wednesday (1973), Night Watch (1973), The Driver's Seat (1974), The Blue Bird (1976) (considered by many to be her worst), A Little Night Music (1977), and Winter Kills (1979) (a controversial film which was never given a full release and in which she only had a small role). She later appeared in some movies, both theatrical and made-for-television, and a number of television programs. In February 1997, Elizabeth entered the hospital for the removal of a brain tumor. The operation was successful. As for her private life, she divorced Burton in 1974, only to remarry him in 1975 and divorce him, permanently, in 1976. She had two more husbands, U.S. Senator John Warner and construction worker Larry Fortensky, whom she met in rehab.
In 1959, Taylor converted to Judaism, and continued to identify herself as Jewish throughout her life, being active in Jewish causes. Upon the death of her friend, actor Rock Hudson, in 1985, she began her crusade on behalf of AIDS sufferers. In the 1990s, she also developed a successful series of scents. In her later years, her acting career was relegated to the occasional TV-movie or TV guest appearance.
Elizabeth Taylor died on March 23, 2011 in Los Angeles, from congestive heart failure. Her final resting place is Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Peter Michael Falk was born on September 16, 1927, in New York City,
New York. At the age of 3, his right eye was surgically removed due to
cancer. He graduated from Ossining High School, where he was president
of his class. His early career choices involved becoming a certified
public accountant, and he worked as an efficiency expert for the Budget
Bureau of the state of Connecticut before becoming an actor. On
choosing to change careers, he studied the acting art with Eva Le Gallienne and Sanford Meisner. His most famous role is that of the
detective Columbo (1971); however, this was not his first foray into acting
the role of a detective. During a high school play, he stood in for
such a role when the original student actor fell sick. He has been
married twice, and is the father of two children:Catherine, a private
detective in real life, and Jackie. He was diagnosed with dementia in
2008, which was most likely brought on by Alzheimer's disease, from
which he died on June 23, 2011.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Anne Francis got into show business quite early in life. She was born on September 16, 1930 in Ossining, New York (which is near
Sing Sing prison), the only child of Phillip Ward Francis, a businessman/salesman, and the former Edith Albertson. A natural little
beauty, she became a John Robert Powers model at age 6(!) and swiftly moved into radio soap work and television in New York. By
age 11, she was making her stage debut on Broadway playing the child version of Gertrude Lawrence in the star's 1941 hit vehicle "Lady in the Dark". During this productive time, she attended New York's Professional Children's School.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer put the lovely, blue-eyed, wavy-blonde hopeful under contract during the post-war World War II years. While Anne
appeared in a couple of obscure bobbysoxer bits, nothing much came of it. Frustrated at the standard cheesecake treatment she was receiving in Hollywood, the serious-minded actress trekked back to New York where she appeared to good notice on television's "Golden Age" drama and found some summer stock work on the sly ("My Sister Eileen").
Discovered and signed by 20th Century-Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck after playing a seductive, child-bearing juvenile delinquent in the low budget film So Young, So Bad (1950), Anne soon starred in a number of promising ingénue roles, including Elopement (1951), Lydia Bailey (1952), and Dreamboat (1952) but she still could not seem to rise above the starlet typecast. At MGM, she found
promising leading lady work in a few noteworthy 1950s classics: Bad Day at Black Rock (1955); Blackboard Jungle (1955); and
the science fiction cult classic Forbidden Planet (1956). While co-starring with Hollywood's hunkiest best, including Paul Newman, Dale Robertson, Glenn Ford and Cornel Wilde, her roles still emphasized more her glam appeal than her acting capabilities. In the 1960s, Anne began refocusing strongly on the smaller screen, finding a comfortable niche on television series. She found a most appreciative audience in two classic The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes and then as a self-sufficient, Emma Peel-like detective in Aaron Spelling's short-lived cult series Honey West (1965), where she combined glamour and a sexy veneer with judo throws, karate chops and trendy fashions. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award nomination.
The actress returned to films only on occasion, the most controversial being Funny Girl (1968), in which her co-starring role as Barbra Streisand's pal was heartlessly reduced to a glorified cameo. Her gratuitous co-star parts opposite some of filmdom's top comics' in their lesser vehicles -- Jerry Lewis' Hook, Line and Sinker (1969) and Don Knotts' The Love God? (1969) -- did little
to show off her talents or upgrade her career. For the next couple of decades, Anne remained a welcome and steadfast presence in a slew of
television movies (The Intruders (1970), Haunts of the Very Rich (1972), Little Mo (1978),
A Masterpiece of Murder (1986)), usually providing colorful, wisecracking support. She billed herself as Anne Lloyd Francis on occasion in later years.
For such a promising start and with such amazing stamina and longevity, the girl with the sexy beauty mark probably deserved better. Yet in
reflection, her output, especially in her character years, has been strong and varied, and her realistic take on the whole Hollywood
industry quite balanced. Twice divorced with one daughter from her second marriage, Anne adopted (as a single mother) a girl back in 1970
in California. She has long been involved with a metaphysical-based church, channeling her own thoughts and feelings into the inspirational
1982 book "Voices from Home: An Inner Journey". Later, she has spent more time off-camera and involved in such charitable programs as
"Direct Relief", "Angel View" and the "Desert AIDS Project", among others. Her health declined sharply in the final years. Diagnosed with
lung cancer in 2007, the actress died on January 2, 2011, from complications of pancreatic cancer in a Santa Barbara (California)
retirement home.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical
knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his
actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York.
He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly
sentimental. Although his politics were somewhat left-leaning and he
often treated socially relevant themes in his films, Lumet didn't want
to make political movies in the first place. Born on June 25, 1924, in
Philadelphia, the son of actor Baruch Lumet
and dancer Eugenia Wermus Lumet, he made his stage debut at age four at
the Yiddish Art Theater in New York. He played many roles on Broadway
in the 1930s and also in the film
...One Third of a Nation... (1939).
After starting an off-Broadway acting troupe in the late 1940s, he
became the director of many television shows in the 1950s. Lumet made
his feature film directing debut with
12 Angry Men (1957), which won the
Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earned three Academy Award
nominations. The courtroom drama, which takes place almost entirely in
a jury room, is justly regarded as one of the most auspicious
directorial debuts in film history. Lumet got the chance to direct
Marlon Brando in
The Fugitive Kind (1960), an
imperfect, but powerful adaptation of
Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus
Descending". The first half of the 1960s was one of Lumet's most
artistically successful periods.
Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962),
a masterful, brilliantly photographed adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill
play, is one of several Lumet films about families. It earned
Katharine Hepburn,
Ralph Richardson,
Dean Stockwell and
Jason Robards deserved acting awards in
Cannes and Hepburn an Oscar nomination. The alarming Cold War thriller
Fail Safe (1964) unfairly suffered from
comparison to Stanley Kubrick's
equally great satire
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964),
which was released shortly before.
The Pawnbroker (1964), arguably
the most outstanding of the great movies Lumet made in this phase,
tells the story of a Holocaust survivor who lives in New York and can't
overcome his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps.
Rod Steiger's unforgettable performance in
the title role earned an Academy Award nomination. Lumet's intense
character study The Hill (1965) about
inhumanity in a military prison camp was the first of five films he did
with Sean Connery. After the overly talky
but rewarding drama The Group (1966)
about young upper-class women in the 1930s, and the stylish spy
thriller
The Deadly Affair (1967), the
late 1960s turned out to be a lesser phase in Lumet's career. He had a
strong comeback with the box-office hit
The Anderson Tapes (1971).
The Offence (1973) was commercially
less successful, but artistically brilliant - with Connery in one of
his most impressive performances. The terrific cop thriller
Serpico (1973), the first of his films
about police corruption in New York City, became one of his biggest
critical and financial successes. Al Pacino's
fascinating portrayal of the real-life cop Frank Serpico earned a
Golden Globe and the movie earned two Academy Award nominations (it is
worth noting that Lumet's feature films of the 1970s alone earned 30
Oscar nominations, winning six times). The love triangle
Lovin' Molly (1974) was not always
convincing in its atmospheric details, but Lumet's fine sense of
emotional truth and a good Blythe Danner
keep it interesting. The adaptation of
Agatha Christie's
Murder on the Orient Express (1974),
an exquisitely photographed murder mystery with an all-star cast, was a
big success again. Lumet's complex crime thriller
Dog Day Afternoon (1975), which
Pauline Kael called "one of the best "New
York" movies ever made", gave Al Pacino the
opportunity for a breathtaking, three-dimensional portrayal of a
bisexual man who tries to rob a bank to finance his lover's sex-change
operation. Lumet's next masterpiece,
Network (1976), was a prophetic satire on
media and society. The film version of
Peter Shaffer's stage play
Equus (1977) about a doctor and his
mentally confused patient was also powerful, not least because of the
energetic acting by
Richard Burton and
Peter Firth. After the enjoyable
musical The Wiz (1978) and the
interesting but not easily accessible comedy
Just Tell Me What You Want (1980),
Sidney Lumet won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for his
outstanding direction of
Prince of the City (1981), one
of his best and most typical films. It's about police corruption, but
hardly a remake of Serpico (1973).
Starring a powerful Treat Williams, it's
an extraordinarily multi-layered film. In his highly informative book
"Making Movies" (1995), Lumet describes the film in the following way:
"When we try to control everything, everything winds up controlling us.
Nothing is what it seems." It's also a movie about values, friendship
and drug addiction and, like "Serpico", is based on a true story. In
Deathtrap (1982), Lumet successfully
blended suspense and black humor.
The Verdict (1982) was voted the
fourth greatest courtroom drama of all time by the American Film
Institute in 2008. A few minor inaccuracies in legal details do not mar
this study of an alcoholic lawyer (superbly embodied by
Paul Newman) aiming to regain his
self-respect through a malpractice case. The expertly directed movie
received five Academy Award nominations. Lumet's controversial drama
Daniel (1983) with
Timothy Hutton, an adaptation of
E.L. Doctorow's "The Book of Daniel" about
two young people whose parents were executed during the McCarthy Red
Scare hysteria in the 1950s for alleged espionage, is one of his
underrated achievements. His later masterpiece
Running on Empty (1988) has a
similar theme, portraying a family which has been on the run from the
FBI since the parents (played by
Christine Lahti and
Judd Hirsch) committed a bomb attack on a
napalm laboratory in 1971 to protest the war in Vietnam. The son
(played by River Phoenix in an
extraordinarily moving, Oscar-nominated performance) falls in love with
a girl and wishes to stay with her and study music.
Naomi Foner's screenplay won the Golden
Globe. Other Lumet movies of the 1980s are the melancholic comedy drama
Garbo Talks (1984); the occasionally
clichéd Power (1986) about election
campaigns; the all too slow thriller
The Morning After (1986) and
the amusing gangster comedy
Family Business (1989). With
Q&A (1990) Lumet returned to the genre of
the New York cop thriller. Nick Nolte shines
in the role of a corrupt and racist detective in this multi-layered,
strangely underrated film. Sadly, with the exception of
Night Falls on Manhattan (1996),
an imperfect but fascinating crime drama in the tradition of his own
previous genre works, almost none of Lumet's works of the 1990s did
quite get the attention they deserved. The crime drama
A Stranger Among Us (1992)
blended genres in a way that did not seem to match most viewers'
expectations, but its contemplations about life arouse interest. The
intelligent hospital satire
Critical Care (1997) was unfairly
neglected as well. The courtroom thriller
Guilty as Sin (1993) was cold but
intriguing. Lumet's Gloria (1999) remake
seemed unnecessary, but he returned impressively with the
underestimated courtroom comedy
Find Me Guilty (2006) and the
justly acclaimed crime thriller
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007).
In 2005, Sidney Lumet received a well-deserved honorary Academy Award
for his outstanding contribution to filmmaking. Sidney Lumet tragically
died of cancer in 2011.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
American leading man famed as the star of one of the longest-running
shows in U.S. television history,
Gunsmoke (1955). Born of Norwegian
heritage (the family name, Aurness, had formerly been Aursness) in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Rolf and Ruth Duesler Aurness. His father was
a traveling salesman of medical supplies and his mother later became a
newspaper columnist. James attended West High School in Minneapolis.
Although he appeared in school plays, he had no interest in performing,
and dreamed instead of going to sea. After high school, he attended one
semester at Beloit College before receiving his draft notice in 1943.
He entered the army and trained at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, before
shipping out for North Africa. At Casablanca, Arness
joined the 3rd Infantry Division in time for the invasion of Anzio. Ten
days after the invasion, Arness was severely wounded in the leg and
foot by German machine-gun fire. His wounds, which plagued him the rest
of his life, resulted in his medical discharge from the army.
While recuperating in a hospital in Clinton, Iowa, Arness was visited by his younger
brother Peter (later to gain fame as actor
Peter Graves), who suggested he
take a radio course at the University of Minnesota. James did so, and a
teacher recommended him for a job as an announcer at a Minneapolis
radio station. Though seemingly headed for success in radio, he
followed a boyhood friend's suggestion and went with the friend to
Hollywood to find work as a film extra. Arness studied at the
Bliss-Hayden Theatre School under actor
Harry Hayden, and while appearing in a play
there was spotted by agent Leon Lance. Lance got the actor a role as
Loretta Young's brother in
The Farmer's Daughter (1947).
The director of that film, H.C. Potter,
recommended that he drop the "u" from his last name and soon thereafter
the actor was officially known as James Arness.
Little work followed this break, and Arness became sort of beach bum, living on the
shore at San Onofre and spending his days surfing. He began taking his
acting career more seriously when he began to receive fan mail
following the release of the Young picture. He appeared in a production
of "Candida" at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, and married his
leading lady, Virginia Chapman. She
pressed him to study acting and to work harder in pursuit of a career,
but Arness has been consistent in ascribing his success to luck. He
began to act small roles with frequency, often due to his size,
and mostly villainous characters. Most notable among these was that of the space
alien in
The Thing from Another World (1951).
While playing a Greek warrior in a play, Arness was spotted by agent
Charles K. Feldman, who represented
John Wayne. Feldman introduced Arness
to Wayne, who put the self-described 6', 6" actor under personal
contract. Arness played several roles over the next few years for and
with Wayne, whom he considered a mentor. In 1955, Wayne recommended
Arness for the lead role of Matt Dillon in the TV series
Gunsmoke (1955). (Contrary to urban
legend, Wayne himself was never offered the role.) Arness at first
declined, thinking a TV series could derail his growing film career,
but Wayne argued for the show, and Arness accepted. His portrayal of
stalwart Marshal Dillon became an iconic figure in American television
and the series, aired for 20 seasons, is, as of 2008, the
longest-running dramatic series in U.S. television history. Arness
became world-famous and years later reprized the character in a series
of TV movies.
After the surprising cancellation of "Gunsmoke" in 1975,
Arness jumped immediately into another successful (though much
shorter-lived) Western project, a TV-movie-miniseries-series
combination known as "How The West Was Won." A brief modern police
drama, McClain's Law (1981),
followed, and Arness played his mentor John Wayne's role in
Red River (1988), a remake of
the Wayne classic.
Following the aforementioned "Gunsmoke" TV movies
(the last in 1994, when Arness was 71), Arness basically retired. His
marriage to Virginia Chapman ended in divorce in 1960. They had three
children, one of whom, Jenny Lee, committed suicide in 1975.
Arness subsequently married Janet Surtrees in 1978.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Jeff Conaway was born on 5 October 1950 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Grease (1978), Taxi (1978) and Jawbreaker (1999). He was married to Kerri Young and Rona Newton-John. He died on 27 May 2011 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Producer
An oddly fascinating bloke with prominent bony cheeks and rawboned figure, Peter William (Pete) Postlethwaite was born on February 16, 1946 and was a distinguished character actor on stage, TV and film. Growing up the youngest of four siblings in a Catholic family in Warrington, Lancashire (near Liverpool) in middle-class surroundings to working-class parents, he attended St Mary's University (London). However, while completing his studies, he developed an interest in theatre, to the chagrin of his father, who wanted his children to find secure positions in life.
A drama teacher initially at a Catholic girls convent school, he decided to follow his acting instincts full-time and gradually built up an impressive array of classical stage credits via repertory, including the Bristol Old Vic Drama School, and in stints with Liverpool Everyman, Manchester Royal Exchange and the Royal Shakespeare Company. By the 1980s he was ready to branch out into film and TV, giving a startling performance as a wife abuser in the Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988).
By 1993 he had crossed over into Hollywood parts and earned his first Oscar nomination for his superb role as Daniel Day-Lewis' father in In the Name of the Father (1993). Other quality roles came his way with The Usual Suspects (1995), Brassed Off (1996), and Amistad (1997). He did fine work on television in Sharpe's Company (1994), Lost for Words (1999), and The Sins (2000). Postlethwaite worked equally both in the UK and abroad, and avoided the public limelight for the most part, except for occasional displays of political activism.
Postlethwaite lived quietly out of the spotlight in England and continued on in films with roles in The Shipping News (2001), The Limit (2004), Dark Water (2005), The Omen (2006), Ghost Son (2007) and Solomon Kane (2009). In 2010, he was seen in Clash of the Titans (2010), Inception (2010) and The Town (2010).
Postlewaite died on January 2, 2011, at age 64, of pancreatic cancer. He was surrounded by his wife and son, and by his daughter from a prior relationship.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
The lovely Susannah York, a gamine, blue-eyed, cropped-blonde British actress, displayed a certain crossover star quality when she dared upon the Hollywood scene in the early 1960s. A purposefully intriguing, enigmatic and noticeably uninhibited talent, she was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher on January 9, 1939 in Chelsea, London, but raised in a remote village in Scotland. Her parents divorced when she was around 6. Attending Marr College, she trained for acting at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, winning the Ronson Award for most promising student. She then performed classical repertory and pantomime in her early professional career.
Making an impression on television in 1959 opposite Sean Connery in a production of "The Crucible" as Abigail Williams to his John Proctor, the moon-faced beauty progressed immediately to ingénue film roles, making her debut as the daughter of Alec Guinness in the classic war drama Tunes of Glory (1960). She emerged quickly as a worthy co-star with the sensitively handled coming-of age drama Loss of Innocence (1961), the more complex psychodrama Freud (1962), as a patient to Montgomery Clift's famed psychoanalyst, and the bawdy and robust 18th century tale Tom Jones (1963), with Susannah portraying the brazenly seductive Sophie, one of many damsels lusting after the bed-hopping title rogue Albert Finney.
Susannah continued famously both here and in England in both contemporary and period drama opposite the likes of Warren Beatty, William Holden, Paul Scofield and Dirk Bogarde. Susannah was a new breed. Free-spirited and unreserved, she had no trouble at all courting controversy in some of the film roles she went on to play. She gained special notoriety as the child-like Alice in her stark, nude clinches with severe-looking executive Coral Browne in the lesbian drama
The Killing of Sister George (1968). A few years later, she and Elizabeth Taylor traveled similar territory with X, Y and Zee (1972).
Award committees also began favoring her; she won the BAFTA film award as well as Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her delusional Jean Harlow-like dance marathon participant in the grueling Depression-era film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Her crazy scene in the shower with Oscar-winner Gig Young was particularly gripping and just one of many highlights in the acclaimed film. She also copped a Cannes Film Festival award for her performance in Images (1972) playing another troubled character barely coping with reality. On television, she was Emmy-nominated for her beautifully nuanced Jane Eyre (1970) opposite George C. Scott's Rochester.
Susannah's film career started to lose ground into the 1970s as she continued her pursuit of challengingly offbeat roles as opposed to popular mainstream work. The film adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) opposite Rod Steiger and Jean Genet's The Maids (1975) with Glenda Jackson were not well-received. Her performances in such films as
Gold (1974), Conduct Unbecoming (1975) which starred another famous York (Michael York), That Lucky Touch (1975), Sky Riders (1976) and The Shout (1978) were overlooked, as were the films themselves. In the one highly popular movie series she appeared in, the box-office smashes Superman (1978) and its sequel Superman II (1980), she had literally nothing to do as Lara, the wife of Marlon Brando's Jor-El and birth mother of the superhero. While the actress continued to pour out a number of quality work assignments in films and television, she failed to recapture her earlier star glow.
Wisely, Susannah began extending her talents outside the realm of film acting. Marrying writer Michael Wells in 1960, she focused on her personal life, raising their two children for a time. The couple divorced in 1980. In the 1970s, she wrote the children's books "In Search of Unicorns" and "Lark's Castle". She also found time to direct on stage and wrote the screenplay to one of her film vehicles Falling in Love Again (1980). On stage Susannah performed in such one-woman shows as "Independent State", 'Picasso's Women", "The Human Voice" and "The Loves of Shakespeare's Women", while entertaining such wide and varied theatre challenges as "Peter Pan" (title role), "Hamlet" (as Gertrude), "Camino Real", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Private Lives", "Agnes of God" and the title role in "Amy's View".
At the age of 67, Susannah showed up once again on film with a delightful cameo role in The Gigolos (2006), and seemed ripe for a major comeback, perhaps in a similar vein to the legendary Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren. Sadly, it was not to be. Diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, the actress died on January 15, 2011, six days after her 72nd birthday. Her final films, Franklyn (2008) and The Calling (2009), proved that she still possessed the magnetism of her earlier years.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Charles Napier was born in the tiny community of Mt. Union, near Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, to Linus Pitts Napier, a tobacco farmer and postman, and his wife, Sara, on April 12, 1936. He attended public school in Scottsville. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Army in 1954. He rose to the rank of E-5 (Sgt.) while serving as company clerk with Company A 511th Airborne Infantry, 11th Airborne Division. He was a lively character actor who usually played edgy military types and menacing bad guys. His film debut was in Russ Meyer's Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1969).
Napier went on appearing in other Meyer movies, including the homicidal Harry Sledge in Supervixens (1975) and also became a regular playing smaller roles for Jonathan Demme. His memorable portrayals of tough guys included the scheming intelligence officer in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and the short-tempered front man in The Blues Brothers (1980).- Andy Whitfield was born on 17 October 1971 in Amlwch, Anglesey, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for Spartacus (2010), Gabriel (2007) and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (2011). He was married to Vashti Whitfield. He died on 11 September 2011 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Kenneth Mars was an American actor and comedian. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974). He also appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? (1972), and Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987), and Shadows and Fog (1991).- Anna Massey was born on 11 August 1937 in Thakeham, West Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Peeping Tom (1960), Frenzy (1972) and The Machinist (2004). She was married to Dr. Uri Andres and Jeremy Brett. She died on 2 July 2011 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Harry Morgan was a prolific character actor who starred in over 100
films and was a stage performer. Known to a younger generation of fans
as "Col. Sherman T. Potter" on
M*A*S*H (1972). Also known for his
commanding personality throughout his career, he tackled movies and
television in a way no other actor would do it.
Born Harry Bratsberg in Detroit, Michigan to Anna Olsen, a homemaker who
immigrated from Sweden, and Henry Bratsberg, a mechanic who immigrated
from Norway. After graduating from Muskegon High School in Muskegon,
Michigan, he took on a salesman job before becoming a successful actor.
Several of his most memorable film roles were:
The Omaha Trail (1942), in the
next quarter-century, he would also appear in
The Ox-Bow Incident (1942),
Wing and a Prayer (1944),
State Fair (1945),
Dragonwyck (1946),
All My Sons (1948),
Red Light (1949),
Outside the Wall (1950),
Dark City (1950) where he met future
Dragnet 1967 (1967) co-star
Jack Webb, who would be best friends
until Webb's death, late in 1982, along with
Appointment with Danger (1950).
His films credits also include:
High Noon (1952),
The Glenn Miller Story (1954),
Strategic Air Command (1955),
among many others. He also co-starred with
James Garner in
Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971).
On television, he is fondly remembered as
Spring Byington's jokingly henpecked
neighbor, "Pete Porter" on
December Bride (1954), where
he became the show's scene-stealer. It was also based on a popular
radio show that transferred into television. The show was an
immediate success to viewers, which led him into starring his own
short-lived spin-off series,
Pete and Gladys (1960), which
co-starred Cara Williams, who met Morgan
in the movie,
The Saxon Charm (1948).
Morgan began his eight-year association with old friend,
Jack Webb, and Universal, starting
with Dragnet 1967 (1967), which
he played Off. Bill Gannon. For the second time, like
December Bride (1954) before
this, it was an immediate hit, where it tackled a lot of topics.
Dragnet was canceled in 1970, after a 4-season run, due to Morgan's
best friend and co-star (Jack Webb)
leaving the show to continue producing other shows, such as
Adam-12 (1968) and
Emergency! (1972). Morgan would
later work with Webb in both short-lived series,
The D.A. (1971), opposite
Robert Conrad and
Hec Ramsey (1972), opposite
Richard Boone. After those roles,
Morgan ended his contract with both Universal and Mark VII, to sign
with 20th Century Fox.
Morgan's biggest role was that of a tough-talking, commanding,
fun-loving, serious Army Officer, "Col. Sherman T. Potter" on
M*A*S*H (1972), when he replaced
McLean Stevenson, who left the show to
unsuccessfully star in his own sitcom. For the third time, the show was
still a hit with fans, and at 60, he was nominated for Emmies nine
times and won his first and only Emmy in 1980, for Outstanding
Supporting Actor. By 1983, M*A*S*H's series was getting very expensive,
as well as with the cast, hence, CBS reduced it to 16 episodes. Despite
M*A*S*H's finale in 1983, Morgan went on to star in a short-lived
spin-off series AfterMASH (1983),
co-starring Jamie Farr and
William Christopher, from the
original M*A*S*H (1972) series,
without series' star Alan Alda.
He also co-starred in 2 more short-lived series, as he was over 70,
beginning with
Blacke's Magic (1986) with
Hal Linden and his final role with
You Can't Take It with You (1987).
That same year, he reprised his role, for a second time as "Off. Bill
Gannon" in the film, Dragnet (1987),
which starred Dan Aykroyd and
Tom Hanks. Then, he guest-starred in several
shows such as:
The Twilight Zone (1985),
Renegade (1992),
The Jeff Foxworthy Show (1995),
for the third time, he also reprised his "Off. Bill Gannon" role,
supplying his voice on
The Simpsons (1989). Towards the
end of his acting career, as he reached 80, he had a recurring role as
the older college professor on
3rd Rock from the Sun (1996),
opposite John Lithgow. Afterwards,
he retired from show business and lived with his family. Harry Morgan
died on December 7, 2011 at 96. On confirming his death, his son
Charles said that he had been recently treated for pneumonia. Morgan
was also one of the oldest living Hollywood male actors.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Clifford Parker Robertson III became a fairly successful leading man through most of his career without ever becoming a major star. Following strong stage and television experience, he made an interesting film debut in a supporting role in Picnic (1955). He then played Joan Crawford's deranged young husband in Autumn Leaves (1956) and was given leads in films of fair quality such as The Naked and the Dead (1958), Gidget (1959) and The Big Show (1961).
He was born to Clifford Parker Robertson Jr. and Audrey Olga (nee Willingham) Robertson. Robertson Jr. was described as "the idle heir to a tidy sum of ranching money". They have divorced when he was a year old, and his mother died of peritonitis a year later in El Paso, Texas. Young Cliff was raised by his maternal grandmother, Mary Eleanor Willingham as well as an aunt and uncle.
He supplemented his somewhat unsatisfactory big-screen work with
interesting appearances on television, including the lead role in Days of Wine and Roses (1958). Robertson was effective playing a chilling petty criminal obsessed with avenging his father in the B-feature Underworld U.S.A. (1961) or a pleasant doctor in the popular hospital melodrama The Interns (1962). However, significant public notice eluded him until he was picked by President John F. Kennedy to play the young JFK during the latter's World War II experience in PT 109 (1963).
Moving into slightly better pictures, Robertson gave some of his best
performances: a ruthless presidential candidate in The Best Man (1964), a modern-day Mosca in an updated version of Ben Jonson's
"Volpone", The Honey Pot (1967), and most memorably as a mentally retarded man in Charly (1968), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. His critical success with Charly (1968) allowed him to continue starring in some good films in the 1970s, including Too Late the Hero (1970), The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), and Obsession (1976).
He starred in, directed and co-produced the fine rodeo drama J W Coop (1971) and, less interestingly, The Pilot (1980). He remained active mostly in supporting roles, notably playing Hugh Hefner in Star 80 (1983). More recently, he had supporting parts in Escape from L.A. (1996) and Spider-Man (2002).
Robertson died on September 10, 2011, just one day after his 88th
birthday in Stony Brook, New York.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota. Her father was a United States Army lieutenant and her
mother had been a student of drama and an actress with a traveling troupe. Once Mr. Russell was mustered out of the service, the family
took up residence in Canada but moved to California when he found employment there. The family was well-to-do and although Jane was the only girl among four brothers, her mother saw to it that she took piano lessons. In addition to music, Jane was interested in drama much as her mother had been and participated in high school stage productions. Upon graduation, Jane took a job as a receptionist for a doctor who specialized in foot disorders. Although she had originally planned on being a designer, her father died, and she had to go to work to help the family. Jane modeled on the side and was very much sought-after especially because of her figure.
She managed to save enough money to go to drama school, with the urging of her mother. She was signed by Howard Hughes for his production of The Outlaw (1943) in 1941, the film that was to make Jane famous. The film was not a classic by any means but was geared through its marketing to show off Jane's ample physical assets rather than acting abilities. Although the film was made in 1941, it was not released until two years later and then only on a limited basis due to the way the film portrayed Jane's assets. It was hard for the flick to pass the censorship board. Finally, the film gained general release in 1946. The film was a smash at the box office.
Jane did not make another film until 1945 when she played Joan Kenwood in Young Widow (1946). She had signed a seven-year contract with Hughes, and it seemed the only films he would put her in were those that displayed Jane in a very flattering light due to her body. Films such as His Kind of Woman (1951) and The Las Vegas Story (1952) did nothing to highlight her true acting abilities. The pinnacle of her career was in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) as Dorothy Shaw, with Marilyn Monroe. This film showed Jane's comedic side very well. Jane did continue to make films throughout the 1950s, but the films were at times not up to par, particularly with Jane's talents being wasted in forgettable movies to show off her sexy side. Films such as Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) and The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956) did do Jane's justice and were able to show exactly the fine actress she was.
After The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957) (a flop), Jane took a hiatus from films, to dabble a little in television, returning in 1964 to film Fate Is the Hunter (1964). Unfortunately, the roles were not there anymore as Jane appeared in only four pictures during the entire decade of the 1960s. Her last film of the decade was The Born Losers (1967). After three more years away from the big screen, she returned to make one last film called Darker Than Amber (1970). Her last play before the public was in the 1970s when Jane was a spokesperson for Playtex bras. Had Jane not been wasted during the Hughes years, she could have been a bigger actress than what she was allowed to show. Jane Russell died at age 89 of respiratory failure on February 28, 2011, in Santa Maria, California.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Ken Russell tried several professions before choosing to become a film
director; he was a still photographer and a dancer and he even served
in the Army, but film was his destiny. He began by making several
short films which paved the way for his brilliant television films of the
1960s that are acclaimed for his attention to detail and opulent visuals.
His third feature film
Women in Love (1969) was a triumph that made him known internationally.
In the 1970s, his talent truly blossomed. Over the next two decades he
would direct a succession of remarkable films, most containing the
trademark flamboyance that critics generally dismiss but many find
engrossing. He will forever be remembered as a controversial, visionary
artist with something of a third eye for oddball dramas with captivating
images and themes.- Tony Award-winning English actor Michael Gough, best known for playing
the butler Alfred Pennyworth in the first four
Batman (1989, 1992, 1995 & 1997) movies and for playing the
arch-criminal Dr. Clement Armstrong in
The Avengers (1961) episode "The
Cybernauts", was an accomplished performer on both stage and screen. He
was nominated twice for Tony Awards, in 1979 for Best Featured Actor in
a Play for Alan Ayckbourn's "Bedroom
Farce" and in 1988 in the same category for
Hugh Whitemore's "Breaking the Code",
winning in 1979. Though he never achieved on the small screen and
silver screen what he did in the theater, Gough's career in television
and movies spanned sixty-plus years over eight decades. Michael Gough
died at age 94 on March 17, 2011 at his home near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. - Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a noted surgeon, Dana Wynter was born Dagmar Winter in Berlin, Germany, and grew up in England. When she was 16 her father went to Morocco, reportedly to operate on a woman who wouldn't allow anyone else to attend her; he visited friends in Southern Rhodesia, fell in love with it and brought his daughter and her stepmother to live with him there. Wynter later enrolled as a pre-med student at Rhodes University (the only girl in a class of 150 boys) and also dabbled in theatrics, playing the blind girl in a school production of "Through a Glass Darkly", in which she says she was "terrible."
After a year-plus of studies, she returned to England and shifted gears, dropping her medical studies and turning to an acting career. She was appearing in a play in Hammersmith when an American agent told her he wanted to represent her. She left for New York on November 5, 1953, "Guy Fawkes Day," a holiday commemorating a 1605 attempt to blow up the Parliament building. "There were all sorts of fireworks going off," she later told an interviewer, "and I couldn't help thinking it was a fitting send-off for my departure to the New World."
Wynter had more success in New York than in London, acting on TV (Robert Montgomery Presents (1950), Suspense (1949), Studio One (1948), among others) and the stage before "going Hollywood" a short time later. The willowy, dark-eyed actress appeared in over a dozen films, worked in "Golden Age" television (such as Playhouse 90 (1956)) and even co-starred in her own short-lived TV series, the globe-trotting The Man Who Never Was (1966). Married and divorced from well-known Hollywood lawyer Greg Bautzer, Wynter, once called Hollywood's "oasis of elegance", divided her time between homes in California and County Wicklow, Ireland until her death.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Farley Earle Granger was born in 1925 in San Jose, California, to Eva
(Hopkins) and Farley Earle Granger, who owned an automobile dealership.
Right out of high school, he was brought to the attention of movie
producer Samuel Goldwyn, who cast him in
a small role in
The North Star (1943). He followed
it up with a much bigger part in
The Purple Heart (1944) and then
joined the army. After his release he had to wait until
Nicholas Ray cast him in the
low-budget RKO classic
They Live by Night (1948) with
Cathy O'Donnell, and then he was
recalled by Goldwyn, who signed him to a five-year contract. He then
made Rope (1948) for
Alfred Hitchcock and followed
up for Goldwyn with
Enchantment (1948) with
David Niven,
Evelyn Keyes and
Teresa Wright. Other roles
followed, including
Roseanna McCoy (1949) with
Joan Evans,
Our Very Own (1950) with
Ann Blyth and
Side Street (1949), again with Cathy
O'Donnell. He returned to Hitchcock for the best role of his career, as
the socialite tennis champ embroiled in a murder plot by psychotic
Robert Walker in
Strangers on a Train (1951).
He then appeared in O. Henry's Full House (1952)
with Jeanne Crain,
Hans Christian Andersen (1952)
with Danny Kaye,
The Story of Three Loves (1953)
with Leslie Caron and
Small Town Girl (1953) with
Jane Powell. He went to Italy to
make Senso (1954) for
Luchino Visconti with
Alida Valli, one of his best films. He did a
Broadway play in 1955, "The Carefree Tree", and then returned to films
in The Naked Street (1955) with
Anthony Quinn and
Anne Bancroft and
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955)
with Joan Collins and
Ray Milland. Over the next ten years Granger
worked extensively on television and the stage, mainly in stock, and
returned to films in
Rogue's Gallery (1968) with
Dennis Morgan. He then returned to
Italy, where he made a series of films, including
The Challengers (1970)
with 'Anne Baxter (I)',
The Man Called Noon (1973)
with Richard Crenna and
Arnold (1973) with
Stella Stevens. More recent films
include The Prowler (1981),
Death Mask (1984),
The Imagemaker (1986) and
The Next Big Thing (2001).
Since the 1950s he has continued to work frequently on American
television and, in 1980, returned to Broadway and appeared in
Ira Levin's successful play "Deathtrap". In
2007 he published his autobiography, "Include Me Out: My Life from
Goldwyn to Broadway" with
Robert Calhoun. A longtime
resident of New York, Granger has recently appeared in several
documentaries discussing Hollywood and, often, specifically
Alfred Hitchcock.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Jackie Cooper was born John Cooper in Los Angeles, California, to Mabel Leonard, an Italian-American stage pianist, and John Cooper. Through his mother, he was the nephew of actress Julie Leonard, screenwriter Jack Leonard, and (by marriage) director Norman Taurog. Jackie served with the Navy in the South Pacific toward the end of World War
II. Then, quietly and without publicity or fanfare, compiled one of the
most distinguished peacetime military careers of anyone in his
profession. In 1961, as his weekly TV series
Hennesey (1959) was enhancing naval
recruiting efforts, accepted a commission as a line officer in the
Naval Reserve with duties in recruitment, training films, and public
relations. Holder of a multi-engine pilot license, he later co-piloted
jet planes for the Navy, which made him an Honorary Aviator authorized
to wear wings of gold-at the time only the third so honored in naval
aviation history. By 1976 he had attained the rank of captain, and was
in uniform aboard the carrier USS Constellation for the Bicentennial
celebration on July 4. In 1980 the Navy proposed a period of active
duty at the Pentagon that would have resulted in a promotion to rear
admiral, bringing him even with Air Force Reserve Brigadier General
James Stewart. Fresh on the heels
of a second directing Emmy, he felt his absence would impact achieving
a long-held goal of directing motion pictures, and reluctantly
declined. (The opportunity in films never materialized.) Holds Letters
of Commendation from six secretaries of the Navy. Was honorary chairman
of the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation and a charter member of VIVA, the
effort to return POW-MIAs from Vietnam. Upon retirement in 1982, he was
decorated with the Legion of Merit by Navy Secretary
John F. Lehman Jr.. Other than
Stewart, no performer in his industry has achieved a higher uniformed
rank in the U.S. military.
(Glenn Ford was also a Naval Reserve
captain, and director and Captain
John Ford was awarded honorary flag
rank upon his 1951 retirement from the Naval Reserve).- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Bill McKinney, the movie and television character actor who was one of
the great on-screen villains, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on
September 12, 1931. He had an unsettled life as a child, moving 12
times before joining the Navy at the age of 19 during the Korean War.
Once, when his family moved from Tennessee to Georgia, he was beaten by
a local gang and thrown into a creek for the offense of being from the
Volunteer State.
In his four years on active duty in the Navy, McKinney served two years
on a mine sweeper in Korean waters. He was also stationed at Port
Hueneme in Ventura County, California, and he would journey to nearby
Los Angeles while on liberty from his ship. During his years in the
Navy, McKinney decided he wanted to be an actor and would make it his
life if he survived the Korean War.
Discharged in Long Beach, California, in 1954, McKinney settled in
southern California. He attended acting school at the famous Pasadena
Playhouse in 1957, and his classmates included
Dustin Hoffman and
Mako. McKinney supported himself as an
arborist, trimming and taking down trees, a job he continued into the
1970s, when he was appearing in major films. McKinney has had a
life-long love affair with trees since he was a child.
After his time at the Pasadena Playhouse, McKinney was admitted to
Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. He made his
movie debut in the exploitation picture,
She Freak (1967), and was busy on
television, making his debut in 1968 on
The Monkees (1965) and attracting
attention as "Lobo" on
Alias Smith and Jones (1971).
But it was as the Mountain Man in
John Boorman's
Deliverance (1972), a movie nominated
for Best Picture of 1972 at the Academy Awards, that brought McKinney
widespread attention and solidified his reputation as one of moviedom's
all-time most heinous screen villains.
In his autobiography, McKinney's
Deliverance (1972) co-star,
Burt Reynolds (whose character
dispatches The Mountain Man with an arrow in the back) said of
McKinney, "I thought he was a little bent. I used to get up at five in
the morning and see him running nude through the golf course while the
sprinklers watered the grass...."
McKinney denies this, and also disputes Reynolds contention that he was
overly enthusiastic playing the infamous scene where his character
buggers Ned Beatty.
"He always played sickos", Reynolds said of McKinney, "but he played
them well. With my dark sense of humor, I was kind of amused by him....
McKinney turned out to be a pretty good guy who just took the method
way too far".
McKinney told Maxim magazine in an interview honoring him and his
Mountain Man partner 'Herbert "Cowboy" Coward' as the #1 screen
villains of all time that Reynolds' stories were untrue. "If you lose
control on a movie set", McKinney told Maxim, "it's not acting, it's
indulgence".
McKinney's wild-and-reckless screen persona and penchant for on-screen
villainy attracted offers from A-list directors, which is a testament
to his professionalism. He began appearing in films directed by top
directors: Sam Peckinpah's
Junior Bonner (1972),
John Huston's
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972),
Peter Yates's
For Pete's Sake (1974) and, most
chillingly, as the assassin in
Alan J. Pakula's
The Parallax View (1974). (One
director who did not hire him was
Stanley Kubrick, who had
considered him for the role of the Marine drill instructor in
Full Metal Jacket (1987) but
demurred as he thought he came across as too scary after screening
"Deliverance".)
McKinney also appeared in the classic TV movie,
The Execution of Private Slovik (1974),
while guest-starring on some of the top TV shows, including
He'll Never See Daylight (1975)
and Columbo (1971).
It was on the set working for a new director, who would go on to win an
Oscar that McKinney made a fateful connection. He played the aptly
named "Crazy Driver" in
Michael Cimino's
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974),
starring Clint Eastwood. McKinney became
part of the Eastwood stock company and enjoyed one of his best roles as
the commander of the Red Legs in
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976),
under the direction of Eastwood, himself. McKinney appeared in another
six Eastwood films from
The Gauntlet (1977) to
Pink Cadillac (1989), when the
Eastwood stock company disbanded, and had another terrific turn in
Eastwood's well-reviewed
Bronco Billy (1980), this time
playing a member of Bronco Billy's circus, a character that was neither
crazy, demented or odd.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976),
which Orson Welles praised as an extremely
well-directed film at a time when respectable critics did not associate
Clint Eastwood with art, let alone
craftsmanship, and
Bronco Billy (1980), which was a hit
with the critics but not with Eastwood fans, established the laconic
superstar's reputation as a director, and McKinney was in both films.
In the
mid-'70s, McKinney also was a memorable misanthrope as 'Ron Howard''s
employer who is done in by
John Wayne's
The Shootist (1976) in the eponymous
film directed by Don Siegel, Eastwood's
mentor. Other memorable movies that McKinney has appeared in during his
career include the initial Rambo film,
First Blood (1982),
Against All Odds (1984),
Heart Like a Wheel (1983),
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
and The Green Mile (1999).
He never retired, continuing to act into his late seventies. He also
performed as a singer and recorded a CD, "Love Songs from Antry",
featuring Sinatra-like numbers and some country & western tunes.
Bill McKinney died on December 1, 2011 in Van Nuys, California from
cancer of the esophagus. He was 80 years old.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Susan Gordon was born on 27 July 1949 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. She was an actress, known for The Five Pennies (1959), Tormented (1960) and Ben Casey (1961). She was married to Avraham Aviner. She died on 11 December 2011 in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA.- Cute, tiny, and prolific little old lady character actress Frances Bay worked constantly in both films and TV shows alike after making her debut at the age of 59 in life with a small part in the comedy Foul Play (1978) in 1978.
She frequently portrayed eccentric elderly women and good-hearted grandmothers in all kinds of pictures and television programs. Frances acted several times for David Lynch: she's Kyle MacLachlan's sweet doddery aunt in Blue Velvet (1986), a gruff, profane whorehouse madam in Wild at Heart (1990), and the spooky Mrs. Tremond in the cult TV series Twin Peaks (1990) and its spin-off feature Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).
Frances popped up in two movies for director Stuart Gordon: she's a kind witch in The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) and a fortune teller in Edmond (2005).
Other notable film roles include a snippy librarian in The Attic (1980), a mysterious blind nun in the offbeat Nomads (1986), another librarian in In the Mouth of Madness (1994), and Adam Sandler's loving grandmother in the hit comedy Happy Gilmore (1996).
Frances had the unique distinction of guesting on the final episodes of the TV shows Happy Days (1974), Who's the Boss? (1984), and Seinfeld (1989).
Among the many TV series Bay had guest spots on are Charmed (1998), ER (1994), Matlock (1986), The X-Files (1993), Murder, She Wrote (1984), The Commish (1991), L.A. Law (1986), Hill Street Blues (1981), Touched by an Angel (1994), The Golden Girls (1985), and Amazing Stories (1985).
She won a Gemini Award for her performance in the Disney TV program Avonlea (1990).
Frances was also in the music video for Jimmy Fallon's "Idiot Boyfriend." In addition to her substantial movie and TV credits, Bay also acted in both Off-Broadway stage productions and regional theater; these plays include "Finnegan's Wake," "Grease," "Genuis," "The Caucasion Chalk Circle," "Number Our Days," "Uncommon Women," "Sarcophagus," and "The Pleasure of His Company." Frances won two
DramaLogue Awards and was nominated for a Los Angeles Dramatic Critics' Award.
In 2002 Bay was the unfortunate victim of an automobile accident which resulted in having part of her right leg amputated. Her husband
Charles sadly died in 2002 as well.
In real life Frances Bay was a very practical and unassuming woman with an avid love for jazz music. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Nicol Williamson was an enormously talented actor who was considered by
some critics to be the finest actor of his generation in the late 1960s
and the 1970s, rivaled only by
Albert Finney, whom Williamson bested in
the classics. Williamson's 1969 "Hamlet" at the Roundhouse Theatre was
a sensation in London, considered by many to be the best limning of
The Dane since the definitive 20th-century portrayal by
John Gielgud, a performance in that period,
rivaled in kudos only by
Richard Burton's 1964 Broadway
performance. In a sense, Williamson and Burton were the last two great
Hamlets of the century. Finney's Hamlet was a failure, and while
Derek Jacobi's turn as The Dane was widely
hailed by English critics, he lacked the charisma and magnetism -- the
star power -- of a Williamson or Burton.
Playwright John Osborne, whose play
"Inadmissible Evidence" was a star vehicle for Williamson in London's
West End and on Broadway, called him "the greatest actor since
Marlon Brando." While it was unlikely that
Williamson could ever achieved the film reputation of Brando (who but
Brando did?) or the superstar status that Burton obtained and then
lost, his inability to maintain a consistent film career most likely is
a result of his own well-noted eccentricities than it is from any
deficiency in acting skills.
The great critic and raconteur
Kenneth Tynan
(Laurence Olivier's first dramaturg at
the National Theatre) wrote a 1971 profile of Williamson that
elucidated the problem with this potentially great performer.
Williamson's Hamlet had wowed Prime Minister
Harold Wilson, and Wilson in
turn raved about his performance to President
Richard Nixon. Nixon invited Williamson to
stage a one-man show at the White House, which was a success. However,
in the same time period, Williamson's reputation was tarred by his
erratic behavior during the North American tour of "Hamlet". In Boston
he stopped during a performance and berated the audience, which led one
cast member to publicly apologize to the Boston audience. Williamson
would be involved in an even more famous incident on Broadway a
generation later.
Even before the Boston incident, Williamson had made headlines when,
during the Philadelphia tryout of "Inadmissible Evidence," he struck
producer David Merrick whilst
defending Anthony Page. In 1976 he slapped a fellow actor during the
curtain call for the Broadway musical "Rex." Fifteen years later, his
co-star in the Broadway production of "I Hate Hamlet" was terrified of
him after Williamson whacked the actor on his buttocks with a sword,
after the actor had abandoned the choreography.
A great stage actor, who also did a memorable "Macbeth" in London and
on Broadway, Williamson was twice nominated for Tony Awards as Best
Actor (Dramatic), in 1966 for Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence" (a
performance he recreated in the film version) and in 1974 for a revival
of "Uncle Vanya." On film, Williamson was superb in many roles, such as
the suicidal Irish soldier in
The Bofors Gun (1968) and
Tony Richardson's
Hamlet (1969). He got his chance playing
leads, such as Sherlock Holmes in
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)
and Castle in Otto Preminger's
The Human Factor (1979), and
was competent if not spectacular, likely diminished by deficiencies in
the scripts rather than his own talent. Richardson also replaced
Williamson's rival as Hamlet, Burton, in his adaptation of
Vladimir Nabokov's
Laughter in the Dark (1969).
It was in supporting work that he excelled in film in the 1970s and
1980s. He was quite effective as a supporting actor, such as his Little
John to Sean Connery's Robin Hood in
Richard Lester's
Robin and Marian (1976), was
brilliant in
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982)
and gave a performance for the ages (albeit in the scenery-chewing
category as Merlin) in
Excalibur (1981). His Merlin lives on
as one of the most enjoyable performances ever caught on film.
Then it was over. While the film work didn't dry up, it didn't reach
the heights anymore. He failed to harness that enormous talent and
convert it into memorable film performances. He did good work as
Louis Mountbatten in a 1986 TV-movie,
but the roles became more sporadic, and after 1997 this great actor no
longer appeared in motion pictures.
Williamson's eccentricities showed themselves again in the early 1990s.
When appearing as the ghost of
John Barrymore in the 1991
Broadway production of Paul Rudnick's "I
Hate Hamlet" on Broadway in 1991, Williamson's co-star quit the play
after being thumped on the buttocks with a sword during a stage fight.
Although critics hailed the performances of the understudy as a "vast
improvement" it caused a sensation in the press. Despite good reviews,
the play lasted only 100 performances.
Surprisingly, Williamson never won an Oscar nomination, yet that never
was a game he seemed to play. In 1970, after his Hamlet triumph, he
turned down a six-figure salary to appear as Enobarbus in
Charlton Heston's film of Shakespeare's
Antony and Cleopatra (1972)_. The role was played by
Eric Porter, but his choice was
justified in that the film was derided as a vanity production and
savaged by critics).
Williamson had been a staple on Broadway, even using his fine singing
voice to appear as Henry VIII in the Broadway musical "Rex" In 1976. He
has not appeared on the Great White Way since his own one-man show
about John Barrymore that he himself crafted, "Jack: A Night on the
Town with John Barrymore," which had enormously successful runs, both
at the Criterion Theater in London, and The Geffen Theater in Los
Angeles playing to packed houses, before closing on Broadway after only
12 performances in 1996.
The "I Hate Hamlet" and "Jack" shows are still talked about on
Broadway. Williamson has joined the ranks of Barrymore, Burton, and
Brando, in that they have become phantoms who haunt the theater and
film that they they served so admirably on the one hand but failed on
the other. All enormously gifted artists, perhaps possessed of genius,
they were discombobulated by that gift that became their curse, the
burden of dreams -- the dreams of their audiences, their collaborators,
their critics. While there is a wistfulness over the loss of such
greatness, there is a relief offered, not so much from a moral tale,
but as a release from guilt for the run-of-the-mill artists lacking
such genius. One can be comforted by the fact that while one lacks the
pearl of such a talent, they also lack the irritating genius that
engenders that pearl.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Roberts Blossom was a marvelously quirky, talented, and versatile character actor who was especially adept at portraying cantankerous old oddballs. Born in 1924 in New Haven, Connecticut, Blossom graduated from the prestigious Asheville School in 1941 and attended Harvard. Roberts initially planned on being a therapist, but eventually changed his mind and decided to become an actor instead. He made his film debut in the bizarre and little seen independent feature "The Sin of Jesus" (1961). It wasn't until he was in his late forties and early fifties that Blossom really hit his stride acting in motion pictures. Roberts gave a truly remarkable and unforgettable performance as demented middle-aged backwoods lunatic Ezra Cobb in the creepy horror cult favorite "Deranged" (1974). Other memorable film roles include an ill-fated elderly patient in "The Hospital" (1971), a sickly soldier in "Slaughterhouse Five" (1972), Paul Le Mat's ornery father in "Citizen's Band" (1977), a farmer who saw Bigfoot once in "Close Encounters of the
Third Kind" (1977), a venerable old felon in "Escape from Alcatraz" (1979), a kindly next door neighbor in "Home Alone" (1990), and a
grumpy small town judge in "Doc Hollywood" (1991). Blossom did guest spots on such TV shows as "Northern Exposure," "The Twilight Zone," "The Equalizer," "Moonlighting," "Amazing Stories," and "Naked City." Moreover, Blossom was also a poet (he released some of his dramatic poems on video) and a playwright who won four Obies and a Show Business Award. After retiring from acting, Roberts settled in Berkeley, California and wrote poetry. He died at age 87 in Santa Monica, California on July 8, 2011.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Robert Easton was born on 23 November 1930 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Working Girl (1988) and The Giant Spider Invasion (1975). He was married to June Bettine Grimstead. He died on 16 December 2011 in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Maria Schneider was a French actress. At age 19 she became famous for Bernardo Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris (1972), and The Passenger (1975).
As a teenager, she adored films, going to the cinema up to four times a week. She left home at 15 after an argument with her mother and went to Paris, where she made her stage acting debut that same year.
Her film debut was an uncredited role in The Christmas Tree (1969).
In Last Tango in Paris she performed several nude scenes. After the film release she decided never to work nude again.
In early 1976, she abandoned the film set of Caligula and was replaced by Teresa Ann Savoy.
She and Brando remained friends until his death.
Schneider died of breast cancer on 3 February 2011 at age 58.- Actor
- Additional Crew
When John Neville was in his early sixties, Terry Gilliam cast him in the title role of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). Although the film was a financial failure, Neville's starring role in this major production, as well as his fine performance, led to an explosion in his career. He afterward received numerous roles in feature films and television. A new generation came to know him from his recurring role in the hit television series The X-Files (1993) and later feature film The X Files (1998), in which he played a mysterious character known only as "The Well-Manicured Man".
He emigrated to Canada in 1972, and took up Canadian citizenship. He was artistic director of the Stratford Festival (Ontario, Canada) from 1984 to 1989.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
George was stage struck at the age of 14 and ran away from school to get a 25 shilling (25p) a week job at a seaside theatre, He spent 6 years going through the mill of small town repertory theatre then the cinema discovered him. After making 12 films he left the studios for 7 years during which time he went back to the theatre appearing in classics at the Old Vic and plays in the West End with films in between - his 13th was The Curse of the Fly,- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
The athletically gifted 6' 7" Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith played
defensive end / defensive tackle for the National Football League's
Baltimore Colts (1967-1971), Oakland Raiders (1973-1974), and Houston
Oilers (1975-1976). After the conclusion of his football career, Smith
moved into a TV & film career, with initial guest appearances on prime
time TV shows including
Wonder Woman (1975),
Charlie's Angels (1976) and
Eight Is Enough (1977).
Smith is best known to international film audiences as the softly
spoken police officer "Moses Hightower" from the
Police Academy (1984) series of
comedies, in which he has appeared in all but one of the numerous
sequels.- Barbara Stuart was born on 3 January 1930 in Paris, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Bachelor Party (1984), Airplane! (1980) and One Step Beyond (1959). She was married to Dick Gautier. She died on 15 May 2011 in St. George, Utah, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
A sunny singer, dancer and comic actress, Betty Garrett starred in
several Hollywood musicals and stage roles. She was at the top of her
game when the Communist scare in the 1950s brought her career to a
screeching, ugly halt. She and her husband
Larry Parks, an Oscar-nominated
actor, were summoned by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and
questioned about their involvement.
As the drama played out, a very pregnant Garrett was never called to
testify, but her husband was. With his admission of Communist Party
membership from 1941-1945 and refusal to name names, he made it to the
Hollywood Blacklist. After the incident, Garrett and Parks worked up
nightclub singing/comedy acts along with appearing in legit plays.
Although Parks never quite shook off the blacklist incident, he did win
a role in John Huston's film,
Freud (1962). Garrett went on to appear in
roles in many television series.- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Diane Cilento was an Australian actress from Queensland. She had partial Italian descent. She was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. For a theatrical role as Helen of Troy, Cilento was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
In 1932, Cilento was born in Brisbane, Queensland's state capital, to a relatively affluent family. Her maternal grandfather was the prominent merchant Charles Thomas McGlew (1870-1931), founder of the Liberty Motor Oil Company. Cliento's father was the medical practitioner Raphael "Ray" Cilento (1893-1985). He became famous as the director of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, the director of the Commonwealth Government's Division of Tropical Hygiene, the Director-General of Health and Medical Services, the president of the Queensland's Medical Board, a high-ranking member of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the Director for Refugees and Displaced Persons, and director of disaster relief in Palestine. Raphael spend much of his career combating malaria and other tropical diseases.
Cilento's mother was the medical practitioner and medical journalist Phyllis Cilento (née McGlew, 1894 - 1987). Phylis became famous for advocating family planning, contraception, and the legalization of abortion in Australia. She wrote many books on health matters. Her medical research involved the use of Vitamin E in therapy, and as a method for preventing blood clots.
Cilento was the fifth of six children born to her famous parents. Four or her siblings followed their parents' footsteps as medical practitioners. Cilento's most famous sibling was the professional painter and print-maker Margaret Cilento (1923-2006). Margaret's works are preserved in both the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia.
Cilento was expelled from school while living in Australia. She then studied abroad, spending part of her school years in the U.S. state of New York. She decided to follow an acting career and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), located in London. She settled in England during the early 1950s.
Following her graduation from RADA, Cilento started a career as a theatrical actress. She was eventually offered a five-year contract by the British film producer Alexander Korda (1893-1956), and took the offer. She started out with several small roles in film. Her first leading role was playing British governess Ruth Elton in the romantic drama "Passage Home" (1955). In the film, Elton rejects a marriage proposal from Captain Lucky Ryland (played by Peter Finch), who she barely knows. Ryland then tries to rape her. She eventually marries another man, but she is secretly in love with her would-be rapist.
During the late 1950s, Cilento found steady work in British films. She played the only woman in a love triangle in the circus-themed "The Woman for Joe" (1955). She played the between maid in the castaway-themed "The Admirable Crichton" (1957), an adaptation of a play by J. M. Barrie (1860-1937). She played a free-thinker in the romantic comedy "The Truth About Women" (1957),concerning the memories of an old man. She also had a role in the aviation disaster film "Jet Storm" (1959), in which a man has placed a bomb on a passenger airplane.
In the early 1960s, Cilento continued to have notable roles. She played the female lead Denise Colby in the psychological thriller "The Full Treatment" (1960). In the film Denise's husband struggles with mood swings and the dark impulse to kill his wife, which makes him fear for his sanity. The film was one of the murder-themed films produced by Hammer Film Productions.
Cilento played the supporting role of a murder suspect's wife in the thriller film "The Naked Edge" (1961). The film is mainly remembered as the last film role for protagonist Gary Cooper (1901-1961), who died of prostate cancer following the film's completion. Cilento played the murder victim Liane Dane in the crime film "I Thank a Fool" (1962), where a female doctor is suspected of killing her own patient.
Cilento played the most acclaimed role of her career as Molly Seagrim in the comedy film "Tom Jones" (1963), the title character's first love. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, but the award was instead won by rival actress Margaret Rutherford (1892 - 1972).
Cilento next played one of the murder suspects in the crime film "The Third Secret" (1964). In the film a well-known psychoanalyst is found murdered within his own residence, and a number of his patients are suspected of killing him. The main plot twist is that the victim was killed by someone much closer to him than his patients.
Cilento also played the prostitute Cyrenne in the comedy-drama film "Rattle of a Simple Man" (1964). The film concerns the efforts of 39-year-old virgin man to finally have sex. She next played the Italian noblewoman Contessina Antonia Romola de' Medici in the historical film "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965), a fictionalized version of the life of the artist Michelangelo (1475-1564). The film was critically acclaimed and nominated for awards, but under-performed at the box office. The struggling studio 20th Century Fox reportedly lost over 5 million dollars due to this box office flop.
Cilento had the supporting role of the caretaker Jessie in the revisionist Western film "Hombre" (1967). The film depicted the relations between the Apache and the white men in 19th-century Arizona. The film earned 12 million dollars in the worldwide box office, one of the greatest hits in its year for release.
Cilento's last film role in the 1960s was the photographer Reingard in the film "Negatives" (1968). The film concerned a couple who liked to role-play as part of their erotic fantasies, however they chose to play the role of famous murderer Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen (1862-1910) and his lover. This film is remembered as the directorial debut of Hungarian expatriate Peter Medak (1937-), who later had a lengthy career.
Cilento gained her first regular television role when cast as Lady Sarah Bellasize in the prison-themed television series "Rogues' Gallery" (1968-1969). It depicted life in the famous Newgate Prison (1188 -1902) of London during the 18th century. The series lasted 2 seasons and a total of 10 episodes.
Following a hiatus in her film career, Cilento returned in the dystopian science fiction film "Z.P.G." ( "Zero Population Growth", 1972). The film depicted a future Earth suffering from overpopulation and environmental destruction. The world's government has decreed than no new child must be born over the next 30 years, but a couple decide to illegally procreate. Cilento played the supporting role of Edna Borden. Borden offers to help conceal the new baby from the world, while she actually wants to keep it for herself. The film's was well received in its time, and lead actress Geraldine Chaplin (1944-) won an award for this role.
Cilento played the role of the famous German test pilot Hanna Reitsch (1912-1979) in the historical film "Hitler: The Last Ten Days". (1973) The film depicted the last few days in the life of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), based on the eye-witness account of Gerhard Boldt (1918 - 1981). The authenticity of the source book has since been questioned.
Cilento had a supporting role in the classic horror film "The Wicker Man" (1973), concerning a neo-pagan cult which practices Celtic paganism. The film was based on a novel by David Pinner (1940-). The film won the 1978 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film, and has often been listed among the best British films. It was one of the most acclaimed films of Cilento's career.
The lesser known film "The Tiger Lily" (1975) included Cilento's last film role in the 1970s. She gained another regular role in the television series "Tycoon" (1978), which only lasted a single season and a total of 13 episodes.
Her film career was in decline during the 1980s, and Cilento chose to return to her native Queensland. She settled in the small town of Mossman, named after the Mossman River which flows though it. She built the outdoor theater Karnak in the local rain-forest, which she operated for the rest of her life. She used the theater as a venue for experimental drama.
In 2001, Cilento was awarded with Australian's Centenary Medal for her services to theater. In 2007, Cilento published her autobiography "My Nine Lives". In her last years she was suffering from cancer. In 2011, she died due to this disease while hospitalized in the Cairns Base Hospital. The hospital was the largest major hospital in Far North Queensland. Cilento was 79-years-old at the time of her death.
Cilento was survived by her daughter Giovanna Volpe and her son Jason Connery (1963-), her only heirs. A collection of items from her personal estate was donated by her heirs to the Queensland University of Technology. The collection reportedly included "hundreds of books, memorabilia, posters, furniture". Also included were original scripts which Cilento had inherited from her last husband, the playwright Anthony Shaffer. Original scripts by both Cilento and Shaffer have been digitized, and made available to scholars through the University's digital collections.- William Campbell was born on 30 October 1923 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Tereza Pavlovic, Barbara Bricker and Judith Campbell Exner. He died on 28 April 2011 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Len Lesser was an American character actor, from the Bronx, New York City. His most famous role was that of Uncle Leo, the maternal uncle of protagonist Jerry Seinfeld in the sitcom "Seinfield". Lesser played this role from 1991 to the series finale in 1998.
Lesser was the son of a Polish-Jewish immigrant, who worked as a grocer in New York City. Lesser was educated at the City College of New York. He graduated in 1942 with a bachelor's degree, at the age of 19. Shortly after, Lesser enlisted in the United States Army which was mobilizing for World War II. He served in the China Burma India Theater of the War.
Lesser was primarily a theatrical actor until the mid-1950s. From 1955 onward, he appeared regularly on television series in minor or guest star roles. He also appeared as a character actor in films such as "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" (1965), and "Kelly's Heroes" (1970).
Lesser did not achieve a regular role until cast as Uncle Leo in "Seinfeld", at the age of 69. Afterwards he was cast in the recurring role of Garvin in the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" (1996-2005). Both Uncle Leo and Garvin were friendly and overly enthusiastic acquaintances of the respective protagonists of each sitcom. For the first time in his career, Lesser became a household name with these sitcom roles.
In his last years, Lesser was struggling with cancer. He died of cancer-related pneumonia in 2011, at the age of 88. His former cast-mate Jerry Seinfield mourned his death and described Lesser as "a very sweet guy".- Actor
- Director
- Producer
John Dye was born on 31 January 1963 in Amory, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Tour of Duty (1987), Touched by an Angel (1994) and Jack's Place (1992). He died on 10 January 2011 in San Francisco, California, USA.- Owning a pair of the most incredibly soulful and searching eyes you'll ever find, Michael Sarrazin's poetic drifters crept into Hollywood unobtrusively on little cat's feet, but it didn't take long for him to make his mark. Quiet yet uninhibited, the lean, laconic, fleshy-lipped actor with the intriguingly faraway look and curiously sunken features enhanced a number of quality offbeat fare without ever creating too much of a fuss. While Hollywood couldn't quite pigeonhole him, they also weren't sure what to do with him. Out-and-out stardom would prove elusive.
He was born Jacques Michel Andre Sarrazin on May 22, 1940 in Quebec, Canada, and drifted through eight different schools before eventually dropping out. He worked at a Toronto theatre, on TV, and for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during his teen years. He also studied acting at the Actors Studio in New York. While playing parts for the National Film Board of Canada in a handful of their historical documentary shorts, he was noticed by Universal and signed in 1965. Following insignificant roles in such series as The Virginian (1962) and in the mini-movie The Doomsday Flight (1966), the actor made his film debut in the post-Civil War drama Gunfight in Abilene (1967) starring an equally offbeat Bobby Darin. One scene had him being flogged shirtless. It was Sarrazin's second film, however, that created the initial stir playing grifter George C. Scott's young apprentice in The Flim-Flam Man (1967). Sarrazin's hesitant con artist more than held its own against the freewheeling Scott while also engaging in romantic clinches with Lolita (1962) sexpot Sue Lyon.
A number of other Sarrazin characters found their way as a result. He played a guileless tenderfoot again, this time taken under the wing of cowboy Anthony Franciosa, in A Man Called Gannon (1968) which takes an unexpected twist at the end; he shared the screen with fellow up-and-comers Harrison Ford and Jan-Michael Vincent as a green Confederate soldier in Journey to Shiloh (1968); earned a Golden Globe "best promising newcomer" nomination portraying an aimless surfer in The Sweet Ride (1968) opposite the spectacularly beautiful Jacqueline Bisset (they lived together for several years); and supposedly turned down the role of Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969) in order to appear in the kinky love triangle In Search of Gregory (1969) as, yet again, another be charming young stranger, but that film was not successful.
This all culminated in the portrayal of his career as a wanderlust Depression-era floater plucked from the beach shore to participate in a grueling dance marathon. As Robert, the unassuming partner to feisty, cynical Jane Fonda's Gloria, in the bleak, fascinatingly depressing They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Sarrazin was both soft and spellbinding. His pairing with Fonda is an eerie and ultimately doomed one resulting in a shattering climax. Remote and wordless, Sarrazin's strength lies in both his ease and passive defiance. His peaceful body language and the few calm utterances he allows himself seems to illicit a strange, neutralizing power. It's not the kind of movie persona, however, that wins awards - as it did for his more flamboyant co-stars Ms. Fonda, Susannah York and Gig Young.
Another glum, ostracized outsider role came in the showier form of Paul Newman's hippie half-brother in Sometimes a Great Notion (1971) and Sarrazin continued to show a flair for the unconventional with the non-mainstream Believe in Me (1971), as a medical student who shares a drug needle with (again) Ms. Bissett, and in The Pursuit of Happiness (1971) as a collegiate fighting the system. In Harry in Your Pocket (1973) Sarrazin again plays the naive square who falls in with a bad crowd (this time, pickpockets). He capped this radical run with a mesmerizing, intelligent and, of course, sympathetic portrayal of the monster in the mini-movie Frankenstein: The True Story (1973). As assurance of his offbeat popularity, he hosted Saturday Night Live (1975) twice.
A performance as the haunted title role in the psychological thriller The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) proved to be one of his last hurrahs, as the film was a critical and box office failure. At this juncture his films (or his film roles) became underwhelming. He starred alongside Ursula Andress in the Italian film The Loves and Times of Scaramouche (1976), but the film was very poorly received. Utterly wasted even though second billed as Barbra Streisand's hubby in her slapstick vehicle For Pete's Sake (1974), he also headed up a so-so car chase film in The Gumball Rally (1976). He co-starred in the big budget escapist adventure Caravans (1978), but the film was a financial disaster. The 1980s signaled a significant down turn and strange pall in his films.
It started with his third-wheel participations in the excruciating bad and violent Morgan Fairchild/Andrew Stevens stalking thriller The Seduction (1982) and in the hard-edged vigilante film Fighting Back (1982) behind Tom Skerritt/Patti LuPone. When he did have a lead, the films themselves were flawed as in Keeping Track (1986) and the excessively sleazy Mascara (1987). Sarrazin has continued to work steadily, however, but the one great film that could put him into the top character ranks had yet to arrive. With age, the always-lean Sarrazin turned pale and haggard which lent itself toward rather eccentric casting.
Throughout the course of his career, Michael remained true to his homeland, appearing in many Canadian-based productions such as The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972), Double Negative (1980), Joshua Then and Now (1985), Captive Hearts (1987), The Phone Call (1989), La Florida (1993) and Crackerjack 2 (1997).
Sarrazin moved to Montreal many years back in order to be near family. He died there following a brief bout with cancer at age 70 on April 17, 2011, and was survived by daughters Michelle and Catherine, as well as producer/brother Pierre Sarrazin. While the fascination and appeal of Michael Sarrazin certainly cannot be denied, one wonders why Hollywood was not able to serve his talent better in later years. - Ravishing redhead Elaine Stewart came onto the film scene in the early 1950s and decorated a number of eastern and western films as well as crimers as a second-tier MGM star. Her striking, shapely beauty and "come hither" sensuality was on full display throughout the decade, often as a temptress or schemer. By the early 1960s, however, she had faded from view, prompted by her 1963 marriage to a game show producer. She then came out of her Beverly Hills retirement in the early 1970s made a modest return to TV in the 70s charming daytime audiences on the game show circuit.
Elaine was born Elsy Henrietta Maria Steinberg on May 31, 1930 in Montclair, N.J., the daughter of German immigrants, Maria Hedwig (Hänssler) and Ulrich Ernst Steinberg, a police sergeant, who was of Frisian background. A one-time usherette and cashier at her hometown movie theatre. Elaine developed very quickly into a beautiful young woman. After a brief stint as a medical assistant, and while still a teen, she was eventually taken on by the Conover Modeling Agency. Changing her name to the more glamorous-sounding Elaine Stewart, her whistle-worthy portfolio and beauty awards eventually caught the attention of Hollywood executives.
Movie mogul Hal B. Wallis offered the wannabe starlet the small, unbilled role of a nurse in the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis slapstick comedy Sailor Beware (1952). MGM subsequently signed the glamour girl to a contract with the intention of building her up as a dark-haired Marilyn Monroe type. The build-up was gradual with window-dressing bits as a chorine, stewardess and the like in such MGM films as Singin' in the Rain (1952), You for Me (1952) and Everything I Have Is Yours (1952). She then moved up the movie ladder to more visible parts in Sky Full of Moon (1952) and, most pointedly, as Lila, the sexy lush and opportunist who has a marvelous "descending staircase" bit in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). During this time, she became a popular pin-up and made the cover of Life Magazine. She later appeared nude on the Playboy Magazine pages (September, 1959).
She hit sultry "B" co-star status the following year in the semi-documentary-styled police drama Code Two (1953) opposite Ralph Meeker, appeared briefly as the ill-fated queen "Anne Boleyn", mother to "Queen Elizabeth" in the Jean Simmons starrer Young Bess (1953); provided lovely distraction in the macho war film Take the High Ground! (1953) alongside Richard Widmark; played a princess-in-peril in The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954) and, co-starring with Gene Kelly and Van Johnson, glamoured up the musical Brigadoon (1954). She left MGM around 1956, and finished off the decade with the films Night Passage (1957), The Tattered Dress (1957) and Escort West (1959). In the early 1960s, she made a couple of films both here and abroad and her standard sultry allure could be witnessed on such TV dramas as Burke's Law (1963) and Perry Mason (1957).
Briefly married to actor Bill Carter in the early 1960s, she later wed Emmy Award-winning game show creator Merrill Heatter and left her career to raise two children. In 1972, she became a co-hostess of the Heatter-Quigley game show Las Vegas Gambit (1972) with perennial game show emcee Wink Martindale and later partnered in the dice-rolling gamer High Rollers (1975) with Alex Trebek.
Following an extended illness, the actress died in Beverly Hills at the age of 81 in June of 2011. She was survived by her second husband Merrill Heatter, son Stewart Heatter and daughter Gabrielle Heatter. - Leonard Stone was born on 3 November 1923 in Salem, Oregon, USA. He was an actor, known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Soylent Green (1973) and I Spy (1965). He was married to Carole H. Kleinman. He died on 2 November 2011 in Encinitas, California, USA.
- Actress
- Writer
Elisabeth Sladen was born in Liverpool, England. She attended drama
school for two years before joining the local repertory theatre in her
home town of Liverpool. She met actor
Brian Miller during her first
production there and they were later married after meeting again in
Manchester, three years later. Early television work included
appearances on
Coronation Street (1960),
Doomwatch (1970),
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973),
Public Eye (1965) and
Z Cars (1962). Between 1974 and 1976,
she had a regular role on
Doctor Who (1963) as Sarah Jane
Smith, a part she has since reprised in
K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981);
The Five Doctors (1983);
the Doctor Who radio serials The Paradise of Death (1993) & Doctor Who
and the Ghosts of N-Space" (1996); the Children In Need skit
Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993);
the spin-off video drama
Downtime (1995) and, most
recently, in the new
Doctor Who (2005) series.
Other work on television has included "Stepping Stones" (1977),
Send in the Girls (1978),
Take My Wife... (1979),
Gulliver in Lilliput (1982),
Alice in Wonderland (1986)
and
Dempsey and Makepeace (1985).
In 1980, Sladen appeared in the cinema film
Silver Dream Racer (1980).
Since the birth of her daughter Sadie in 1985, she has spent most of
her time being a mother and housewife, but has made occasional
television appearances, including in
The Bill (1984) and
Peak Practice (1993).
Fan reaction of her reappearance as Sarah Jane Smith on
Doctor Who (2005) resulted in the
production of a second Doctor Who spin-off just for her,
The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007).- Actor
- Director
- Producer
G.D. Spradlin was born on 31 August 1920 in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Ed Wood (1994), Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He was married to Frances Hewitt Hendrickson and Nell Ethelyn Hulsizer. He died on 24 July 2011 in San Luis Obispo, California, USA.- Googie Withers began her acting career at
the age of 12. She was dancing in the chorus in a West End revue when
she was spotted by a Warner Brothers casting director. She went to do a
screen test for them at the Riverside Studios and was invited to become
an extra. On her first day at the filming of
The Girl in the Crowd (1934)
she arrived on the set just after
Michael Powell had just sacked
the second lead, and she was enlisted to play one of the lead roles. - This actress' two-decade career produced only one single stand-out film
role but that one role as the "good girl" who redeems "bad boy"
Marlon Brando's tough biker in the cult
flick The Wild One (1953) put Mary
Murphy at the head of the acting class for one brief shining moment. In
others, she proved a lovely distraction amid the male action
surrounding her and also, given the right material, displayed obvious
talent in both Grade "A" and "B" drama as the feminine co-star or
second lead.
The beautiful blue-eyed brunet stunner was born on January 26, 1931, in
Washington D.C. but quickly moved with her family six months later to
Cleveland, Ohio. Her father, James, a businessman, died there in 1940,
and her mother eventually moved Mary and her two brothers and sister
(she was the youngest of the four) West to Southern California where
Mary went on to attend University High School in the Los Angeles area,
graduating in 1949. A one-time employee of Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly
Hills, the fresh-faced beauty was "discovered" at a café and signed by
Paramount Studios.
Following insignificant bit/extra work in such movies as the
Bob Hope's vehicles
The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) and
My Favorite Spy (1951), the
sci-fi feature
When Worlds Collide (1951),
and "Best Picture"
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952),
Mary won the female lead opposite relative newcomer
Tommy Morton in the show business drama
Main Street to Broadway (1953).
The film was ill-received and both stars were rather dwarfed by the
huge names that surrounded them --
Tallulah Bankhead,
Lionel Barrymore,
Ethel Barrymore,
Shirley Booth,
Mary Martin and even Rodgers and
Hammerstein. Her second lead in a film was a different story. the
legendary The Wild One (1953)
opposite Marlon Brando. Mary managed to
hold her own in this biker classic but it did not, however, necessarily
lead to better films. She continued in the demure ingénue mode in the
Vincent Price sub-horror
The Mad Magician (1954) and the
routine western Sitting Bull (1954)
which starred future husband
Dale Robertson. The June 1956
marriage to Robertson was very short-lived; it was annulled by
Christmas time.
Mary went on, however, to give earnest leading lady perfs opposite
Tony Curtis in
Beachhead (1954),
Ray Milland's debut as a director,
A Man Alone (1955) and
Hell's Island (1955) with
John Payne. She also appeared to good
advantage in
The Desperate Hours (1955)
but was slightly overshadowed by powerhouse star cast of
Humphrey Bogart,
Fredric March,
Arthur Kennedy,
Gig Young and
Martha Scott. From then on it was fairly
dismal for Mary in such lesser features as
The Maverick Queen (1956),
The Electronic Monster (1958) and
Live Fast, Die Young (1958),
a lowbudget "Wild Ones" delinquent crimer as a girl who tries to save
her sister from a life of crime.
Mary left the screen for a time but resumed her career in the 60s and
early 70s primarily on TV with a number of episodics and mini-movies
playing matronly wives and mothers and had a small but noticeable role
in the film Junior Bonner (1972).
Remarried in 1962, Mary retired completely by the late 70s and turned
to environmental causes. She also worked in a Los Angeles art gallery
for a time and has been seen on occasion in nostalgia conventions. She died on May 4, 2011, of heart disease, in Beverly Hills. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Perhaps best known for his portrayal of underground drug king Rhah in
Oliver Stone's Academy Award-winning Platoon (1986), Francesco Quinn is one of the
film industry's most versatile young actors. Intent on following in the
footsteps of his father, Oscar winner Anthony Quinn, who had appeared in more
than 200 pictures, Francesco has already racked up some impressive film
credits, setting him well on his way. He was the lead guest star in an
episode of JAG (1995) which won the show a 29 share (the highest rating in
its history) and had a lead role in TNT's Rough Riders (1997).- Actress
- Casting Director
- Casting Department
Peggy Rea was born on 31 March 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress and casting director, known for Grace Under Fire (1993), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) and Love Field (1992). She died on 5 February 2011 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.- Annette Charles was born on 5 March 1948 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Grease (1978), In Search of Historic Jesus (1979) and The Incredible Hulk (1977). She was married to Robert Romeo. She died on 3 August 2011 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
Amy Jade Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983 in Enfield, London, England and raised in Southgate, London, England to Janis Holly Collins (née Seaton), a pharmacist & Mitchell "Mitch" Winehouse, a window panel installer and taxi driver. Her family shared her love of theater and music. Amy was brought up on jazz music; She received her first guitar at age 13 and taught herself how to play. Young Amy Winehouse was a rebellious girl. At age 14, she was expelled from Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London. At that time she pierced her nose and tattooed her body. She briefly attended the BRIT School in Croydon, and began her professional career at 16, performing occasional club gigs and recording low cost demos. At 19 years old, she recorded her debut album: Frank (2003), a jazz-tinged album that became a hit and earned her several award nominations. During the next several years, she survived a period of personal upheaval, a painful relationship, and struggles with substance abuse. Her final album, Back on Black (2006) was an international hit, and 'Rehab' made No. 9 on the US pop charts.
Her big break came in 2008. Amy Winehouse became the first British female to win 5 Grammy Awards on the same night, February 10th, 2008, including Best New Artist and Record of the Year for 'Rehab'. Her Grammy performance was broadcast from London via satellite, because she was unable to appear in person in Los Angeles due to temporary problems with her traveling visa. Following her success at the Grammy Awards, Winehouse gave a string of highly successful performances during the year 2008. In June, she was suddenly hospitalized with a serious lung condition. However, she left hospital for one evening to perform for Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday celebration in London's Hyde Park. She sang her hits: Rehab & Valerie, drawing cheers and applause form the crowds and a smile from Mandela. Winehouse also performed for Roman Abramovich's party in Moscow; there she earned $2 million for her one-hour gig.
Amy Winehouse developed a distinctive style of her own. Her signature beehive hairstyle has become the model for fashion designers, while her vulnerability, her fragile personality and self-destructive behavior was regular tabloid news, and subject of criticism and controversy. In April 2008 she was named the second greatest "ultimate heroine" by the British population at large, and a month later was voted the second most hated personality in the UK. George Michael called her the "best female vocalist he has heard in his entire career," while Keith Richards warned that she "won't be around long" if her behavior doesn't change.
Musically, Amy Winehouse created a cross-cultural and cross-genre style. She experimented with an eclectic mix of jazz, soul, pop, reggae, world beat and R&B. She had a special ability to channel hurt and despair into her performances. Her voice, phrasing and delivery sometimes sounded like a mix between Billy Holliday, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan, and coupled with similarities in personal problems, she at times resembled another incarnation of legendary "Lady Blues".
Amy died at 27 years old on July 23, 2011 in her London home following a long-running battle with alcohol addiction. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and her ashes were laid to rest in Edgwarebury Jewish Cemetery in London, United Kingdom. Her death caused considerable mourning worldwide.- Actress
- Soundtrack
A slim, stunning, stylish-looking actress, British Jill Haworth (born Valerie Jill Haworth on August 15, 1945 in Sussex) was a free-spirited product of the 1960s. Her father was a textile magnate and sometime race car driver and mother an aspiring ballerina. Trained in dance herself, she attended the Corona Stage School and appeared, unbilled, as a schoolgirl in a couple of movies, before fame came knocking at her door.
The diminutive (5'2") Jill was discovered by ever-formidable director Otto Preminger after he happened upon her photo from her acting school. Looking for a new face to play the refugee role of Karen in his monumental Oscar-winning film Exodus (1960), Jill made a touching impression as Sal Mineo's ill-fated Jewish girlfriend. An impressed Preminger went on to cast the actress in two other of his other important epics that same decade -- The Cardinal (1963) and In Harm's Way (1965). Both, however, were received with much less fanfare.
At this juncture, Jill had gained a sympathy vote in Hollywood as many of her ingénues seemed to meet untimely ends. Despite a dusky, untrained singing voice, the lovely blonde went to Broadway in 1966 and fashioned the role of the capricious Britisher Sally Bowles (played with a dark wig) in the musical "Cabaret," which co-starred Bert Convy as her naive American boyfriend and the irrepressible Joel Grey as the seedy Master of Ceremonies. The Kander/Ebb musical, which took place in decadent pre-Nazi Berlin, was based on
Christopher Isherwood's popular "Berlin Stories". A huge hit, it won numerous Tony awards, including best musical of the 1966-67 season. Although Jill received mixed reviews, she played the role for two years.
Interestingly, it was veterans Lotte Lenya and Jack Gilford who received Tony nominations for their elderly roles in the production and not the young leads Haworth and Convy. Later on, while Grey was asked to recreate his magnetic Tony-winning part for the 1972 film Cabaret (1972), Jill and Bert were snubbed again when the leads went to others. It should be noted that by the time Bob Fosse's screen version was ready to go, Jill's star had dimmed considerably. The movie was now geared as a showcase for the fast-rising Liza Minnelli. As such, the Bowles character was Americanized and her boyfriend, played now by Michael York, served as her British counterpart. Both Minnelli and Grey won well-deserved Oscars for their dazzling performances.
After the "Cabaret" success, things died down and Jill returned to England, relegated to a few horror films here and there, including It! (1967), Horror House (1969) and Tower of Evil (1972). She also appeared on several American TV series from time to time, including Mission: Impossible (1966), The F.B.I. (1965), Baretta (1975) and Vega$ (1978). By the 1980s, however, Jill was pretty much out of sight.
In 2001 she appeared out of nowhere in a support role for the America film Mergers & Acquisitions (2001). She was living in New York and reportedly had just finished working on a voiceover YMCA spot in 2011 when she died suddenly in her Manhattan home of "natural causes" at age 65.- Linda Christian was born Blanca Rosa Welter, to a Dutch father, Gerardus Jacob Welter, and a Mexican-born mother, Blanca Rosa Vorhauer. Her Father was an executive with Royal Dutch Shell and Christian traveled extensively as a result living in South Africa, Romania, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, and Palestine at various times during her childhood This was beneficial in that the little girl - a very good pupil at school - eventually was able to speak seven languages. She also turned into a shapely young lady who won a beauty contest. She started studying medicine in Palestine but had to be repatriated to the USA due to the international situation. She landed in Los Angeles and naturally considered a movie career there. She studied drama but got only minor parts for years. She really became famous when she married Tyrone Power, and her career somewhat improved. But it is scandal more than her film roles that long made her a favorite of the celebrity press rather than of specialized movie magazines.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
O'Neal was born in New York in 1969, but moved to Boston when he was
just 1 year old. He was educated at West Roxbury High School and went
on to attend Northeastern University, both in Boston. After this,
various jobs followed including a sausage cart vendor at a train
station, flower seller and popcorn seller at the Boston Garden Arena.
In October 1992, O'Neal attended an open microphone comedy night. He
heckled one of the comedians, who challenged O'Neal to perform himself
at the next open mic night. He did just that and so began his comedy
career. Over the next 6 years, O'Neal became a fixture on the Boston
comedy circuit. He then relocated to New York, becoming a regular at
Manhattan's Comedy Cellar. After this, O'Neal moved to Los Angeles and
radio, television and film projects followed.
He appeared in various shows, both in acting roles and as himself. In
2005, he taped his own episode of
One Night Stand (2005) and in
2011 he had his own Comedy Central special, 'Patrice O'Neal: Elephant
in the Room'. As well as on-screen projects, O'Neal worked on radio and
continued as a stand-up in clubs and theaters.
O'Neal's final screen appearance was in September 2011 when he took
part in the
Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen (2011).
On November 29, 2011, O'Neal, who suffered from diabetes, passed away,
following complications from a stroke. He was 41 years old.